The Opelousas courier., 1887-04-09
ARTIFICIAL ICE.
A Remarkable Practical APP
plication OF Science.
The Uses to Which Artificial Ice is Put
in Urge ties.

One of the most remarkable practical
applications of science is the production
Of artificial ice, for the preservation of
food in large cities. In New York, for
instance, there is no longer any waste of
fish, flesh, fowl or fruit from heat or de-
cay. In all the packing houses under
the vast freight dcpots at s.. Johns
Park, as we'll as the warehouse near the
markets, there isa constant production
of artificial ic,, which freezes all perish
able fool, SO that it c.n be kept any
reasonable length of time until sold.
During the dog-days, turkeys
and chickens are from as stiff as
at any time in midwinter. This artif-
cial ice is ever SO much cheaper than
natural i2e, because it can be manu-
featured when required, and does not
call for the labor of handling. Am
monia is the principal ingredient used
in its manufacture. A daily paper o
this subject says: "The artificial pro-
duction of cold is, of course, no new
thing. AS far back as 1924, Valance,
in 1884, Perkins, and 20 years latter,
Twining, made experiments with a view
to producing ice by mechanical means.
In 1855, -Twining built a machine in
Cleveland, O., in which, by the use of
sulphuric ether, about ton of ice a day
was produced. In 1850, Care made
ice-making a practical business BY the
invention of his ammonia absorption
machine, which produced a great sensa-
ton at the Paris exhibition Of 1867.
Cares principle remains to-day that of
the best cold producing machines.
L!quefied ammonia, the product of the
compression of gaseous ammonia at a
low temperature, in evaporating and re-
turning to its gaseous state requires an
immense amount of heat,
and will take it from any
surrounding material. The problem,
therefore, was to compress the gas until
it liqucfed, and then carry the liquid
ammonia to some place where its evapora-
ton would absorb heat not wanted.
Thus, if ice was desired, the liquid
ammonia could be carried into a coil of
pipe paced in a tank of water, the alb
sorption of heat by the coil of pipe
would be such as to freeze the whole
mass of water. If cold air simply was
desired, a pipe carrying liquid ammonia,
or any substance cooled by the am monia,
could be carried to the apartment which
it was desired to cool Cares first
machine was simply a strong pump
which compressed the gaseous ammonia
to the point of liquefac.ion, and a series
of pipes or re.orts into which the liquid
ammonia was forced. Having absorbed
the surrounding cold by its expansion,
the gas was returned to the compression
pumps and reduced again to liquid am
monia. All Improvements pom the sys-
tenn of Care and Twinins have been
made chiefly in the line of greater me-
chanical perfection of the condensing
and expansion devices. A perfect
machine would lose no gas
whatever, but would continue using the
same gas over and over again." But
there are other uses to which the produc-
ton oil artificial ice can be applied. In
the years to come, living in large cities
DUNG the summer time will be rendered
more tolcrabie by the Refrigeration of
private houses, as we'll as public re-
sorts, such as churches, places of amuse-
ment, and incloscd public gardens. A
machinery, similar to that we employ in
heating houses in winter time, can be
used to cool them during the heats of
summer. Living in tropical regions
also will be rendered more cndurable
when the cheap production of artificial
ice is better understood. In northern
regions, we live under cover, as a pro-
lection against cold, and with these new
refrigerating agents, an Enclosure against
the hot weather will LIE a protection in
those regions of the earth that are near
the equator. This manufactured ice is
one of the most beneficent and useful
inventions of modern times. --[Demorest.